Demanding the recall of the Wakf Amendment Bill, terming it an attempt to curtail religious freedom and political deception of Muslims, the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday passed a unanimous resolution with the BJP staging a walkout.
Conscious of the ruling DMK’s captive minority vote bank, Chief Minister MK Stalin moved the resolution that called for complete withdrawal of the Bill. With the lone exception of BJP, which has four members in the House, all the parties, including the principal opposition AIADMK supported the resolution.
“The Bill deeply deceives Muslims and intends to dismantle the Wakf Board itself. It is like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) brought to deceive Muslims and Sri Lankan Tamils and Hindi imposition, which deceives non-Hindi speaking states. The National Education Policy deceives the most vulnerable communities,” he said listing the reasons for opposing the Wakf Bill.
“While diminishing the authority and autonomy of the national and state Wakf Boards, the Bill provides untrammeled authority to the Union government. Wakf land declared as government property will cease to belong to the Wakf Board. The provision that says that only those who have been practicing Islam for five years or more can create a Wakf Board that might invalidate those created by non-Muslims. Further, the Union government is attempting to create separate Wakf Boards for the two Muslim sects. Mandating two non-Muslims to be on the Board is an interference in Muslim religious administration,” Stalin said, blaming the Modi regime.
On further problematic features of the Bill, he said the provision for revoking Section 40 of the Waqf Act would not only deprive the Boards power to identify property but transfer it to the Union government which is a violation of freedom of religion guaranteed under Article 26 of the Constitution.
Application of the Limitation Act to Wakf properties, removal of ‘Wakf user’ to do away with the tradition of recognising Wakf properties and stripping public trusts and charities of being Wakf were cited as infringement. These concerns raised by the DMK and other parties in the Joint-Parliamentary Committee have been rejected, Stalin pointed out adding that the Bill could be tabled anytime as the Union Cabinet had approved the decisions of the JPC.